Hekazu

Adrift -- Open Space; Sector Delta 14 -- Open

The others on the vessel were few, but those in the compartment he was guided to numbered three in total. Two were once again of the Scrounger race, naturally in their armour, but there was also this massive metal creature that at first glance looked like a statue, but it shifted slightly to give the fresh arrival more room to settle in. All of the people he would be travelling with appeared armed, but that was nothing new to the Ragnarov Fleet, was it now?

The metal man tried talking to Jace, but the man would not understand the language they were speaking. As a matter of fact neither really did either of the Scroungers, but one procured a deck of cards from somewhere. The symbols on them were new to the human passenger, but these travelmates tried their best to show him how the game would work if he would just pick up on the rules non-verbally. It sure did not appear too difficult. Well, whether he learnt or not, the ship was on the move now.

@scifidude47

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

@Gordian Nought@Lucius Cypher@Ryonara@Irredeemable

Dear players I've yet to hear of after my recent post: Feel free to discuss plans in OOC. Who knows, it might help you figure out what to do.

*The Space-Bar ~ A Virtual Tavern ~ Always Open*

@Dbooney

Feel free to hop on in. Duke Virne is absolutely free at the time being.

Adrift -- Open Space; Sector Delta 14 -- Open

Jace wouldn't really know how long it had been when the members of the Flee returned to the cell. The door was opened from the outside and he was greeted something resembling a furball with spaghetti for limbs. Probably the worst thing about it was that it was man sized. Another look over it would give more information: The middle point of it was a head sized ball of fur with a set of yellow eyes peeking out from the middle of it all. Four lanky, boneless appearing limbs extended from this centre point and ended in something that resembled a child's drawing: sort of flat, kinda rounded appendages, the hands having four ridiculously oversized straight razor-like claws. It blinked a few times before the bottom of the middle furball began shaking. It spoke.

"Follow me. You are leaving for Universal Nova. Lucky you." It's voice sounded like somebody was straight up slaughtering rats, but it did speak his language and carry the symbol he had seen around the hallways and on the suits of people. It in the hallways in an unnerving manner, seemingly proving further it did not indeed possess a bone structure. If the Fleet had done something wrong, it had been sending one of these creatures in without letting the refugee get acquainted with any of its kin first.

Were he to follow without incident, he would be led to a smaller ship back in the docking bay into which his escape pod had originally landed. It was nowhere to be found now. "You will get to go on troop transport. Everybody armed, maybe jittery. Many will be happy to get back home. Try not to cause a scene", he was instructed.

@scifidude47

D&D 5e - High Seas and Tall Tales

The kobold tried to make her way off, to claim the final word on their discussion by claiming insignificance of the Beholder's actions. Not too surprisingly Dyn'yer'zhead was having none of this. The gems in his eyepatch shone as a near sadistic grin spread across his features and the water parted around the cocky lizard. "We are not done", he declared.

>Dyn casts Control Water, parting the sea before the kobold and making her splash down about 10 ft harmlessly, a void space left behind.

For a moment, the Kobold flailed in the water, disoriented for a moment, before turning to face the beholder. “What the hell, you prick?,” Askia hissed, her eyes showing that she was now thoroughly annoyed with the squid.

Dyn ceased the parting effect, the trench filling again instantly and splashing the kobold with saltwater. From breathing liquid to gas and then liquid again, that must have been quite the experience. The same half of Dyn's eyes met her furious stare as he lowered himself to her level. "Oh, are my acts not too insignificant to be noted? Does what I have for myself suddenly interest you, oh heroic adventurer?" he replied in a mocking tone, directing the water around them to flow towards the centre where he was.

>The Part Water effect is ceased in favour of Direct Flow, which forms multiple circular currents around them with a shared end point: A small dormant sphere where they are now.

Try as she might, Askia, with her great strength, attempts to swim against the current only to make it worse for herself. This was a prime example of why one should never skip P.E. in school. “I’ll give you one last chance, stop this now before I have to waste more of my energy on your dull mind!”

>Askia fails to escape the currents with a disadvantaged STR save of 0 in total.

Very few a kobold talked back like her. This behaviour was what many humans, elves and even the occasional seafaring dwarf had shown him, but never had something like that come from a kobold. Dyn opened his mouth again, his voice now distorted by the building anger of the kobold's words against his person. After all, everybody knew that there was no creature type more perfect than a Beholder and that Dyn was the shining example among them. "Wriggle wriggle, little fish... being of feeble body, hear my words. I care little of whether you care about anyone. What I care about is how your actions affect me. And out of your foolishness alone, we fought. And you call yourself a hero, do you? Let me laugh at the very notion! With the incompetence shown, you would cause the trouble in triple, compared to what you solve!"

“Stop!” Askia hissed once more, this time what seemed like a wall of invisible energy, which was slightly visible with the part of water, lightly slammed into Dyn and pushed him back a few feet. “Don’t make me use anymore of my power!”

>Askia uses the psionic ability Push with 1 psi point, dealing 1 force damage and pushing Dyn'yer'zhead 5 feet away on his failed STR save. He does not fail his concentration check.

The hiss to stop from the kobold told Dyn he had struck a nerve, as did the brief feeling of psychic energy passing over him. He was nudged away from Askia who frantically tried to make her way out of his domain, but the currents that held on to her served him in a different manner, pushing him back to his spot in the middle. Just before he had the chance to retort, a giant blue tiger leapt in. Yes, that was his daughter, interfering with his business for whatever reason. She just barely missed the kobold within the currents as the latter hissed threats of more power being aimed at him. Dyn closed a majority of his eyes and shook himself from one side to another.

"Pitiful", he spat out as the currents ceased their merciless whirling, everything that had been carried within them only moving a brief distance afterwards. "Leave her be, daughter. She has heard what I have to say. Whether she will take it to heart like a smart creature would or ignore it like the imbecile she has made herself out to be, that is up to her. One can only lead a horse to water, not make it drink. But Askia... do not follow me unless you are willing to actually follow me." With that, a different current started and Dyn swam along it to the rest of the party.

>Dyn ceases the makeshift whirlpool and replaces it with a gentler current he uses to return to the Verdant Stream.

With the current dissipating, Askia has a chance to finally get more than a few words in, though it seemed Dyn was done toying with her with the tiger’s fail. “Follow you? Don’t make me laugh. You are no leader, I’m going because she is,” Askia stated pointing at Cynthia, “I am not some Kobold you can grind into the ground and expect to have as some form of minion, asshole.” The Kobold grit her teeth together and allowed Dyn to go, only moving to get back to the merwoman with the magical sword.

Disclaimer

Conflict fought between Dyn'yer'zhead and Askia, collaborated by @Hekazu and @Lauder respectively. Mechanics are provided in greentext at appropriate moments. All rolls were performed on Discord.

D&D 5e - High Seas and Tall Tales

The Beholder was disappointed in the fact the three headed dog failed to yield before his assault, but on the other hand his weapon was so very small when compared to the sheer bulk of the creature. While Tradewind had served him faithfully for years, it might finally be the time to consider replacing the old sword with something more powerful. Something like the less trustworthy merfolk woman was swinging about, maybe. Just of proper class and finesse, none of that cumbersome over-abundance of steel. And what remained of his disappointment was largely brushed away when his daughter moved in to finish the job.

Soon after the final dog would poof back into existence, dead as a stone. They were done here, Dyn concluded and began swimming, not back towards the main group but towards the small creature that had caused the failure of any and all plans he had had and driven this situation into the battle it had been. However, he did not miss the scene Jill caused on the side, how she sent away the Darkness of Koan and commanded Sauron to kneel. And even though they were underwater, the man managed to do just so. A pair of his eyes followed the exchange and he smirked. That had put him in a rather good mood, all things considered. Jill shared his annoyance. Ah, she knew just how to remind the great Dyn'yer'zhead of why he had fallen for her in the first place.

Yet he still had his own agenda. He floated closer to Askia in the water, dedicating about half of his eyes to observing the small female kobold. He smacked his lips before he began talking, even considering if he would be able to eat her if need be. He was, after, all, the size of a man. But no, she would probably only cause trouble even then. "I am sure you are aware that what you did just now was not exactly... wise", he began, his voice surprisingly calm. "We had a plan, you see, but then somebody, who may or may not be the half-grown lizard before me with too much daring for her own good before me just had to go shouting. Because how could that possibly backfire at all, hmm? Entertain me. Share your thoughts." His words were collected, his voice calm, but his tone and accentuation made it clear he had not appreciated the fact at all.

Mechanics&Rolls

HP: 62/62 AC: 20 Concentrating: Nope
Bladesong status: Active, 4 rounds or so remaining. 1 use left.
Slots/expended:
4/1 1st
3/1 2nd
3/1 3rd
3/0 4th
2/0 5th

@Lauder

Let's start a war.

No conflicts are counted out. If you are planning something larger, all I am asking is to wait just a bit until we get the overarching story into check :)

Let's start a war.

Greetings from the hopefully-to-be story moderation!

A war can most definitely happen. What should be noted for the time being however is that the hub planets are all under the control and protection of the United Federation of Planets (UFP), so as far as things go that may not be the opportune ground to be starting a war on. A small war is simple, provide the moderation (at the moment there is one official one available, that being @Circ) with the premise and they will set something up. Both sides will have their objectives and boons from winning etc., or if it is not as much a PvP conflict with factions warring but more of a war story with a clear defined winner, then it can simply be an RP of its own.

As for an entity that would be powerful enough to draw the attention of all the hub planets, thus the entirety of the UFP, that may throw things out of control for a second and just now is not the best moment for something quite that big to happen. You see, we are expecting the moderation team to expand a bit, as well as the overarching stories would be starting to form anew. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but if at all possible could you consider a smaller scale conflict for the time being?

Adrift -- Open Space; Sector Delta 14 -- Open

The lead figure nodded along. Slavers, check. Rebellion, check. Escape pod taken from them, check. Accidental breach here, check. And a distaste for United Federation of Planets for whatever reason, check. There were many details obfuscated by the truncation, but those could be asked about in greater detail after a moment. For what it mattered, they now had a former UFP citizen in their hands, one that would rather not head on back.

"To borrow your expression, for what it is worth you have successfully removed yourself from the area governed by UFP. Were you to want to cut what ties remain, we may be able to help with that. That all will depend on what we hear from the council though. If what you told us is true, you would be the first case of this kind. And unless you would be planning to explode, I do not see any reason you would have to lie. Yet you will have to excuse us for maintaining certain level of caution with you."

The scrounger he had been talking with turned around on his heels, stopped and extended an arm towards a door on the side of the hallway. "If you would wait there, we will contact our superiors and ask what is to be done with you. Best case scenario, you may get to hop on a cargo transport deeper in our territory even today", they shared, deliberately leaving the worst case up to imagination. The room they pointed him to was simple and it did not take much of a brain to deduce it would be a cell. But at least it had all the basic needs met in food, drink and something to lay down on.

@scifidude47

Adrift -- Open Space; Sector Delta 14 -- Open

Once Jace removed himself from the escape pod, the 'welcoming committee' pointed him in a direction without saying a word. Were he ever to approach any of them, they would step back and point their weapon at him, but given he was already surrendering they expected compliance. A few eyed the pickaxe on his belt suspiciously, but would let it be. He could hear, and if he turned around even see, a few of the assembled entering the escape pod. He was corralled into the middle of a circle for the time being, right on the opposite side of the pod.

He would be made wait for some time, setting on the move again once the group that had entered the pod now exited it. To this point, nobody had replied to anything and any insistent attempts at communication were met with a wave of one's hand. These people were either not understanding him or not willing to exchange pleasantries, nor actual information. This would change as they dumped him off the docking bay into one of the hallways heading out where a trio of these same exoskeleton toting Scroungers would receive him.

"Seems our good soldiers did not find any sign of deception. For the time being. Now follow me, Jace Rosson. We have a few details to discuss", the middle one of them sounded to him with an overly masculine voice. "Oh, and pardon my voice. I lost a bet", the alien explained to him turning around and beginning to guide him deeper into the frigate. "While we walk, feel free to begin your story. In full, thank you. Regarding how you ended up stranded in our area in space, not when you were born, naturally."

@scifidude47